Lucille Clifton interviewed by Hilary Holladay

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/feature.onpoets.html?id=179624
She Could Tell You Stories
A conversation about names, race, and the need for mirrors.
LUCILLE CLIFTON INTERVIEWED BY HILARY HOLLADAY

THELMA AND LUCILLE | CHILDREN NEED WINDOWS AND MIRRORS | ON BEING "CLEARLY
COMPLEX" | PRONOUNCING FROGS, READING WOLFE | DREAM VS. VISION

This interview took place April 11, 1998, on a brilliant Saturday afternoon at Lucille Clifton’s home in Columbia, Maryland. Serving as the William Blackburn Distinguished Visiting Professor at Duke University that spring semester, Clifton was home for the weekend with two of her daughters, Gillian and Alexia. After undergoing a kidney transplant the previous summer (with Alexia as her donor), Clifton had returned to her demanding schedule of writing, teaching, and giving public readings. She was in the midst of writing poems for Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988–2000.